"A reliable and arguably preferable alternative to plugin-based solutions": Audient Oria Mini review

What is it?

Last year, Audient launched Oria, its multichannel targeted USB audio interface. It was an impressive product, offering immersive audio users a unit that met their needs head-on, while also delivering a premium Dante-expandable audio interface. What’s more, with Sonarworks SoundID support, it also included fully integrated room calibration.

Their second Oria device is the Oria Mini. Rather than offer a watered-down version of the original Oria unit, Oria Mini targets the stereo or 2.1 user and focuses on the monitoring and room correction side of their setup. It comes bundled with the Sonarworks MREF mic for use with the SoundID Reference Measure application, and includes integration with Sonarworks SoundID Reference as well as manual calibration options.

Oria Mini is placed between your interface and monitors, taking either an analogue (2xTRS ¼” jack) or digital (optical S/PDIF) input and outputting either stereo or stereo plus mono sub to your monitors via 3 TRS ¼” jacks. It features premium audio conversion and further options include 4 hardware selectable SoundID profile memories, and remote control via Stream Deck or Audient’s Oria Control iPad app.

The key thing to understand about Oria Mini is that your custom Sonarworks SoundID calibrations or manual room correction settings run directly from Oria Mini’s onboard processor. This eliminates the need to run a real-time calibration plugin within your DAW, and this means a more stable, lower latency and more integrated monitoring and room correction solution. It also means Oria Mini can operate as a standalone device.

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Performance

Oria Mini is USB-C powered, and the USB-C connection also allows software setup and control via the Oria Control desktop software. This includes various control room style options (speaker volume, mono, speaker solo and so on), as well as calibration settings, which are stored in ‘profiles’. These can be selected via the software, with 4 ‘key’ profiles also selectable from Oria Mini’s front panel.

Alas, there are no further physical controls, such as mute or output level, for example. That said, more tactile control is available either via the Oria Remote iPad app or via Elgato Stream Deck devices.

Oria Mini can store up to 32 profiles, which you manage within the Oria Control app. A profile’s key component is its room correction and there are two main ways you can implement this. Firstly, create a fresh profile and use the 8-band EQ to create your own curve, finessing the correction with channel-specific trim (+/-6dB), delay (0-75ms) and sub crossover (30-500Hz).

Alternatively, you can import an existing Oria Mini profile, or one generated using Sonarworks SoundID Reference.

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Integration with SoundID Reference is a powerful feature, not only because its 18-band EQ offers higher resolution calibration than the 8-band profile EQ, but also because SoundID Reference allows you to implement and finesse different target curves.

To make full use of this integration, you’ll either need the Oria Mini specific SoundID Reference licence, or if you already have SoundID Reference, there’s an Oria Mini add-on licence (£85, €99, $99).

Oria Mini is available in various bundles that cater for this. We found the process of exporting calibrations directly from SoundID Reference very easy, and once imported into Oria Mini although the calibration curves cannot be edited, you can see the curve shape, which is handy.

Verdict

Overall, we really like Oria Mini. It offers both set-and-forget simplicity and multiple profile support for more demanding users. It’s clearly quite a focused device, but the hardware and software integration is excellent and from a user perspective, we found it both easy and reliable to use.

Oria Mini is a well-executed device that integrates monitoring and room correction options for stereo and 2.1 users. It’s a solution that will work with any monitors and offers a reliable and arguably preferable alternative to plugin-based solutions.

Alternatives

IK Multimedia ARC Studio: £250 at IK Multimedia

This hardware and software package is a well-established and affordable solution.

Universal Audio Apollo X: £1,000 at uaudio.com

Hardware-level support for SoundID Reference across the UAD Apollo X series provides a compelling option.

Specifications